Supermassive binary black holes among cosmic gamma-ray sources

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dc.creatorRieger, Frank M.
dc.date2006-11-07
dc.date2006-11-15
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:40:47Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:40:47Z
dc.descriptionSupermassive binary black holes (SBBHs) are a natural outcome of galaxy mergers. Here we show that low-frequency ($f \leq 10^{-6}$ Hz) quasi-periodic variability observed from cosmic blazar sources can provide substantial inductive support for the presence of close ($d \lppr 0.1$ pc) SBBHs at their centers. It is argued on physical grounds that such close binary systems are likely to give rise to different (although not independent) periodicities in the radio, optical and X-ray/TeV regime, and, hence that detection of appropriate period ratios significantly corroborates the SBBH interpretation. This is illustrated for a binary model where optical longterm periodicity is related to accretion disk interactions, radio periodicity to Newtonian jet precession, and periodicities in the high energy bands to the orbital motion of the jet. We use the observed periodicities to constrain the properties for a sample of SBBH candidates including OJ 287 and AO 0235+16, and discuss the results within the context of jet activity and binary evolution.
dc.description4 pages, based on presentation at "The multimessenger approach to unidentified gamma-ray sources", Barcelona/Spain, July 2006; accepted for publication in Astrophysics and Space Science; references updated
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611224
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0611224
dc.identifierAstrophys.SpaceSci.309:271-275,2007
dc.identifierdoi:10.1007/s10509-007-9467-y
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/181435
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.titleSupermassive binary black holes among cosmic gamma-ray sources
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